Morning Sun
by Besarki
Summary: Because being a parent isn't easy--especially when your nine year old son does everything in his power to convince you that he's a hippopotamus and you're a toaster. YohAnnaHana


Besarki: HI! REMEMBER ME?? :D No? That's okay. I haven't posted a thing in months. COLLEGE KILLS!

I don't know how I feel about this one. There are parts I really like and parts which I'm like, "Dear god, I actually wrote that?!" But, it's been an age since I published anything and due to my studies I haven't been able to write at all lately and not only has that put me in a bad mood, but it's caused me to regress a lot :( SO! I must keep writing else my writing will become stale!

This is a lighter tale of sorts. I get a bunch of comments on the portrayal of the relationship between Hana and Anna in my other story, Living For The Moment so I thought I'd give that another shot. Don't know if I really captured it all that well, but I haven't published anything in a dog's age so I gotta take whatever I can scribble out at this point, right?

**Disclaimer: Shaman King and all related elements belong to Takei Hiroyuki and Shueisha.**

* * *

"Breathe in...breathe out..."

"Kaa-san."

"Be at ease...make peace with the world around you..."

"Kaa-san."

"Breathe...breathe..."

"_Kaa-san._.."

"See things as they actually are, not as your eyes perceive them..."

"Kaa-san!"

"Allow your mind's eye to reach beyond your standard state of consciousness..."

"ARGH!"

"Your whining isn't going to make this work any more efficiently, Hana."

Hana's eyes finally opened--though perhaps _shot_ open would be a better term. Not a moment passed before he angrily turned to glare at his mother. Her face was still blank and her eyes were _still_ closed.

She couldn't see, but he was seething. He had wanted to go out and play with the Munzers today, but his father had insisted that he stay and keep his mother company as she would be alone for the third day in a row today thanks to the trip Yoh was currently on. Hana's suggestion that Yoh come back instead almost got him grounded.

It wasn't that Hana didn't _like_ Anna. She was a good mother most of the time, and he loved her, but she was just so...

Well, the ridiculous training she put him through should be reason enough to want to avoid her sometimes.

Not that her new hippie practices were really anything to be desired either.

"This is so _dumb!_ I mean, seriously! This ex_panding your consciousness_ thingy may work for you, but this pile of dog crapisn't worth half a squirrel's molding foot to anyone else._"_

"Lovely choice of words."

"I'm serious, Kaa-san! This isn't working for..._for anything!_"

"..."

"Kaa-san!"

"You're annoying."

"HEY!"

At long last, Anna opened her eyes. She turned toward her son a few seconds later, her arms crossed, eyebrow raised, and a displeased look on her face.

Hana puffed up his cheeks, and his mother rolled her eyes.

"No one said you had to sit here with me, Hana."

"Tou-san did."

She grumbled something undecipherable under her breath, then sighed. "Well, I lift the sentence. Go play," Anna insisted, waving her hand dismissively.

Hana's face lit up like a kid on Christmas. "Really? I can go play?" Hana beamed.

"Yes. Now leave me alone," She replied emotionlessly.

Hana grinned. Without a moment's hesitation, he clambered to his feet and raced to give his mother a quick hug. "Thank you sooooo much, Kaa-san! I promise to be back before dinner!" He promised. Still grinning, he turned around and bolted for the door, yelling a hasty, "Bye!" before darting through the threshold.

A million things he could do today raced through his head. He had already called the Munzers and told them that he wasn't allowed to go out today and it would probably be rude to call them now, just over an hour later and say, _Change of plans! You can come over now!_ But that was okay--there was still a ton he could do.

For instance, he had that new video game that Yoh had bought him (despite the fact that Yohmei claimed it would corrupt the young shaman. Turn him into one of those bafoonish humans that tore down trees and uprooted entire orchards just for their own personal gain. Yoh had more faith in his son than that) for his birthday. Then, he could color in that dinosaur coloring book he received from Seyrarm. Oh, and after he finished that, he could go play outside. It was beautiful out today!

He was practically bouncing up and down out of excitement for all he had to do today. Everything was just so exciting!

As he reached the family room, Hana dropped onto his knees and slid across the floor, stopping just a few feet away from the television. He crawled the rest of the way.

Upon turning on the television and his little black game console, Hana scooted back, controller in hand. He really liked this game. His character was a fire-breathing moose with three antlers and bi-color eyes. He had never played a video game before and had accidentally named his character _AAAA_. He would have preferred MegaMooseMan or something to that effect, but it was okay because the player's name didn't come up much.

The title screen lit up the tv and _Press Start_ began blinking in the middle of it. Hana bashed the start button with his thumb and clicked to start the first level.

_AAA_ **vs.** _Frankenpig From Planet Mach 259_

_**BEGIN!**_

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**_  
_

About an hour and a half later, when Hana was facing the fifth boss, Captain ZoomZoom of Planet XLR8 the game insisted that he insert the quake box which was included with the game.

Unfortunately, the quake box was in its case in Hana's room. Upstairs.

"Great," Hana groaned, rising to his feet and heading for the stairs.

Sighing, he dragged himself up the steps. He should have thought to bring the case with him. He knew the accessory was in there, but he hadn't thought to retrieve it beforehand. Bah. Whatever. A little exercise wouldn't kill him.

At the top of the stairs, Hana turned and headed for his room. Just as he remembered, the case was in the corner next to his dresser, and it only took it a moment to retrieve the add-on for his game.

Quake box in hand, Hana left his room and headed down the stairs. He kept his eyes on the steps until he got close to the bottom. Then, finally, he looked out in front of him.

Hana paused three steps up from the lower level.

Anna was standing alone in the kitchen staring absently out the window. Part of Hana wondered if there was anything there, though a bigger part of him knew that he was wondering in what was probably some form of false hope. Despite the utterly blank look on her face, she looked almost...sad somehow.

Sad and lonely.

And then he felt bad, because he knew she had probably been this way for days, and despite the fact that Yoh called every night to check up on his family, the days would still be long and lonely.

Hana glanced down at the accessory in his hand.  
_  
"Well, I lift the sentence. Go play."_

Go play. Right, like he could play now that he was feeling totally guilty. He had previously thought that his father was just being annoying. Guess not.

Hana's mouth dipped into a deep frown. He felt like a jerk. He tried to make excuses for himself, insisting that he hadn't known and that she hadn't given him any clues to suggest otherwise and therefore this was totally not his fault. And yet, that didn't work because he shouldn't have ditched her even if she weren't lonely. Either way, he was still disobeying his father who deliberately told him to stay with his mother.

So he was wrong on two counts. Disobeying Yoh and acting like a heartless oaf to Anna. Super. Now all he had to do was burn the inn down and he'd be a real A-Class jackass.

Jeez. He'd really screwed up this time.

Sighing, Hana glanced down at the device in his hand. His own mother was drowning herself in misery and he was preoccupied with some stupid game.

He wished he could just turn the stupid thing off and go help her...

Hana's head whipped up, a bewildered expression on his face.

Okay. _Duh!_

The days were long and lonely, but they didn't have to be.

Beaming, Hana quickly ran back upstairs and threw the game mechanism into the corner. He had no time for that now.

He needed a plan. He couldn't just strut into the kitchen and say, "You look lonely! Let's play a game." She'd throw him in a lake if she knew he was pitying her. No. He had to be creative about this...

Really, _really_ creative. But how...

_Hmmm...  
_

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

Anna sighed as she gazed out the window. Two birds were chasing each other around a tree in the center of the yard.

The image of serenity. Peace.

And utter boredom.

A second, tired sigh escaped her lips as she leaned forward on the counter. Counting birds as they randomly flew by was a miserable way to spend a Friday.

Yoh had left just under a week ago to visit a novice shaman in Australia. The Asakuras normally didn't accept that kind of work--they were inn keepers, not school teachers, but the family had offered them a good deal of money as well as begged and pleaded for about three hours over the phone until Yoh finally caved and agreed to meet with the new shaman who had no idea how to use his abilities due to that fact that his parents were completely human. His shamanic talents had come out of the blue and his parents had been desperately searching for someone to help them. When they heard about the Asakuras and all their exploits, they refused to leave them alone until one of them finally gave in and agreed to train their preteen son.

Regrettably, that left Anna alone at the inn at an extremely slow time with no one but Hana to keep her company. However, she found it extremely unfair to force him to hang around with her just because she was bored and lonely.

_Suffer in silence,_ She mentally told herself. _You've done it before. You can do it again._

Though apparently, Hana didn't catch the memo.

Anna whipped around as she heard someone slide across the floor and slam into the cabinet. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"_Hana?_" She asked, staring at him in confusion.

Sure enough, there was Hana, dressed in pots and pans with a strainer on his head, a wooden spoon in his hand, and a rubber spatula tucked into his belt. His face displayed a mixture of shock and fierce determination.

The young shaman flipped around and screamed, "KAA-SAN! GET DOWN!" before diving at his mother and knocking her over.

"HANA! What do you think you're doing?!" She demanded.

Hana quickly fixed his strainer-helmet. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm saving your life!"

"From what?!"

"Are you blind? There's a giant fire-breathing seahorse in the back yard!"

Anna's eyes widened as her bewilderment intensified. "WHAT?!"

The battle-ready boy rapidly nodded. "Yeah! It's having an epic battle of the centuries with Godzilla!"

"...?" Anna stared at him like he had three heads.

Hana said something under his breath and then stole a glance out the window. "Shoot! He's coming this way!" He shouted. "Come on, Kaa-san! We have to go hide!"

In the duration of about fifteen seconds, Hana grabbed Anna's hand and dragged her out of the room, his kitchenware armor clanking with each step he took.

"Hana, what the--"

"No talking! The giant seahorse has, like, three hundred ears!" He scolded, suddenly noting a closet about ten feet away and rushing toward it. "Quick! In here!"

"Wha--" _**SLAM! Click!**_

"Don't worry, Kaa-san! I'm going to make these monsters go crying back to their creators! HIIIIIYAH!"

"Hana, you unlock this door right now!"

"Sorry, Kaa-san! I'm saving the onsen! Give me like, five minutes!"_** Swish!**_ **_Slash!_** "Take that foul beast! And that, and that!" Hana screamed, slicing at the invisible monsters that were attacking his house. "Die you monsters! _Diiiiiiie!_"

Anna groaned from the darkness within the closet her her son had trapped her within. Funny how a day can start off totally boring and end trapped in a closet with a little boy running around outside fighting war of the worlds with a spatula.

Sighing, she slid to the floor. She felt her entire body droop in exasperation as a loud, _"YAAAAH!"_ was heard from outside. _Some days_...

"Are you almost done out there, Hana?"

"Not yet, Kaa-san! Godzilla's here, too! I forgot my light saber in my room so this is going to take a little longer than I had planned!"

"Super," She deadpanned.

Hana laughed in that bubbly way that echoed with contentedness and glee. "I love you, Kaa-san!"

Anna sighed. "Love you, too," She grumbled. "Love you, too..."

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"Kaa-san, Godzilla was attacking the Earth. I couldn't just let him get away with something like that," Hana insisted as if this were sheer simplicity and his mother was a fool for not realizing it.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Of course, Hana. However, this doesn't explain nor does it _exempt_ you from the fact that you locked me in the closet _and_ refused to let me out even after being asked several times. That, little boy, is timeout worthy material."

Hana gaped, shocked that he was being threatened with timeout after he saved the world from the nefarious plans of two menacing monsters. Not to mention the fact that he had gone out of his way to keep her from being lonely and here she was _threatening_ him! Sheesh. No respect. "I was savin' your life, Kaa-san! Saving. Your. Life. You may not realize it, but you owe me big time!"

"Oh yes. I owe you oh so much for trapping me in a closet for two hours."

"Yeah you do!" He agreed. "You should be showering me with cookies and ice cream, not threatening me with timeout."

Anna crossed her arms and stared pointedly at him.

Groaning, Hana dropped his defiant stature. "Fine," He growled, turning around and heading for the step.

"Where are you going?" Anna suddenly asked.

Hana stopped, surprised and a little caught off guard. Slowly, he turned around, a peculiar look on his face. "Time...out?"

"I thought you wanted cookies."

Hana's expression changed from confusion to almost morbid disbelief. _What the hell?_

The twenty-some year-old mother sighed and brushed off her dress. Anna may have thought on a different wavelength than her young son, but she wasn't stupid. She knew that Hana was sacrificing his own time to keep her company, and though she'd never breathe a word of it, she really, _really_ appreciated it.

"Are you _serious?_" He asked, not trusting his ears.

She shrugged. "Well, maybe not cookies because you haven't eaten dinner yet, but if you're up for a healthier alternative..."

Hana gaped, not believing any of this at all. "Who are you and what have you done with my mother?"

The itako rolled her eyes. "If you don't hurry up, little boy, my better judgment is probably going to end up kicking in and you're going to end up grounded."

Hana cringed. She didn't have to tell him twice.

He returned a moment later with a large red bucket filled with about twenty different tubes of paint.

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"If I paint my face grey, will I look like a hippopotamus?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you're tiny and hippos are humongous."

"So? If I paint your face grey, you won't look like a toaster."

"Why in Kami's name would I want to look like a toaster?"

"Why not? Are you so ashamed of your own people?"

"My what?"

Hana threw her a look that appeared to be accusing her of being clueless. "I never thought I'd see a day so tragic," He spat. "A day when the queen of the microwaves would desert her loyal followers without a second thought on the matter."

"WHAT?!"

He turned his head away defiantly. "I don't think so, miss deserter! The king of the hippos has no patience for the likes of _you!_" Hana strutted away from her in mock disgust, picking up a tube of grey paint and squirting a glob of it into his cupped hand.

Anna sneered dangerously. "Asakura Hana, if you even _think_ of putting that on your face, so help me--"

"THE KING HAS SPOKEN!" Hana announced, drawing battle marks underneath his eyes and attacking the canvas with what was left in his hands, running his chubby little fingers all over the board and then pummeling it with open palms over and over and over again.

The canvas looked like a bomb had gone off in his painting and then ricocheted off the walls and then impacted it once more. Nonetheless, Hana backed up and gave it an approving nod. "Needs red," He decided. "The color of fury to represent my people's rage over being kept in cages to be stared and laughed at during the human's trips to that monstrosity known as..._the zoo_."

"What is wrong with you?"

Hana whirled. "What's wrong with _me? WITH ME?!_" He gasped, stomping his foot down--right on top of a tube of blue paint. "SHOOT!" Hana yelped, jumping back--

Onto _another_ tube of paint.

Hana jumped again, kicking over the entire bucket of paint tubes and falling onto a group of them.

Blob after blob of paint came shooting out from a multitude of pastel paint tubes, drenching the walls and ceiling. In mere moments, the room had gone from a solid white to about fifty two different colors.

Horrified, Hana dropped the tube in his hand and backed up against one of paint-splattered walls, avoiding his mother's horror-stricken eyes. He was going to get grounded for a _year!_

Dumbfounded and without any type of explanation, he painstakingly cleared his throat.

"S-So..." He stuttered after a moment of awkward silence. "W-What's for lunch?"_**  
**_

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"You're really not mad?" Hana gaped, disbelief more prominent than anything else.

Anna sighed. "I should be. I really should be, but I know that it was an accident--careless, but truly an accident." _And we're getting the room repainted and re-carpeted. Why the hell else would I have left you paint inside?_ She added mentally. Not that she was going to tell him that. Let him think she was actually being overbearingly forgiving for once.

"So...I'm not grounded?" He asked hopefully.

"Oh, you're banned from television and video games for the next month, but other than that, no. You're not grounded."

"But I don't have to sit in timeout?" He checked.

"You do for the next half an hour."

He cringed. It seemed like with every word he spoke, he dug himself a deeper and deeper hole. Okay. Just one more question and only because it was technically kind of important to his health.

"So...no lunch then?"

"Oh, you can eat."

"Really?"

"Sure. Just finish up your timeout."

Hana groaned. "I knew that would have a catch."

Anna simply smiled.

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"There is no mustard in macaroni and cheese!" Anna insisted as she snatched the mustard bottle away from her son for the fourth time.

Hana balled his fists and threw an angry face at his mother. "There has to be! How else would it be yellow?!"

"It's called macaroni and _cheese_, Hana. Cheese is yellow."

"Cheese is white! See? That's white!"

"Yes, because that's Swiss and, believe it or not, Swiss Cheese does tend to be white."

"And not yellow."

"Right, but see, _this_ cheese is yellow."

"I don't believe you. There's no such thing as yellow cheese."

"Hana, you've _had_ yellow cheese before!"

"Nuh uh. I _think_ I'd remember."

"Me too, but apparently you don't."

Hana crossed his arms and put on a defiant face. Anna did the same thing though hers was about three times as intimidating as his thanks to the fact that his youth left him with childish features which wouldn't look scary on a gargoyle. At least, not a Hana-esque gargoyle.

Hana randomly decided to throw any ounce of maturity he had out the window by abandoning his defiance in favor of a tongue-out, eye-pulled gesture.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's nice."

"You're mean."

"I've been told that before. Now, sit down and let me finish this."

"AGH! It's gonna turn out bad if you don't add mustard!"

"For the last time, there's no--"

"GIMME!" Hana yelped, jumping for the condiment and falling just a few inches short. "Kaa-san!"

"_No,_ Hana."

He gritted his teeth. "Can I _please_ have the mustard?"

"No."

"WHAT?! I said please!"

"Please isn't some magic word that can grant you anything you want in the world."

Hana snickered. "Tell that to Tou-san. Every time I don't say it, he says, _Say the magic word!_ And I do and then he gives me extra cake or whatever it is I'm asking for."

Anna gaped. "_Please_ tell me you're joking."

"Yeah, unfortunately. That _would_ be super cool, though."

"You're going to be the death of me."

"If you die, can I have your stuff?"

"I'm _so _happy that you care for me so much."

"I'm just kidding." He snickered. Absently, his eyes trailed to the window. A moment later, they bulged. "_Oh my god!_ Look!"

Alarmed, Anna whirled around...

...and Hana snatched the bottle of mustard right out of her hand.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! I GOT IT! I GOT IT!" He squalled, parading around with his prize secured safely against his chest. With a huge grin, he made a beeline for the pot, turned the mustard bottle upside down, and squeezed.

A stream of yellow dripped out of the bottle and landed in the pot. Still grinning, he grabbed the wooden cooking spoon and began stirring the concoction. This was going to be the best macaroni and cheese ever!

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"THIS IS THE WORST MACARONI AND CHEESE EVER!" Hana declared, tears pooling in his eyes. "THIS IS SO _GROSS!_"

Anna sat beside, sipping coffee out of a small white cup. She chuckled quietly to herself. "I _did_ tell you that there was no mustard in macaroni and cheese."

"You could have been a little more convincing..." He whined.

"This one is _all_ on you, Hana. I tried to warn you and yet you refused to listen."

"I..." He shivered. "Never mind."

"Maybe next time you'll listen," She chimed with sickening sweetness.

Hana was able to spare her a quick glare over his nauseating bowl of macaroni. "Do I really have to eat this?"

"To throw it out with be horribly insulting to Mother Nature."

Drooping slightly, Hana grumbled something about liking her better when she wasn't a hippie. Her soft snicker hinted that she had probably heard him.

Sighing, Anna stood up from her seat across the table from Hana. Casually, she reached forward and took the bowl from in front of him.

"This is a one time thing. Don't think I'll let you waste like this again."

Hana's eyes lit up. "I can be done?!"

"Just this once," She said quietly, taking the bowl to the window to dump the leftover contents outside. The scavengers could have it. They probably wouldn't mind the wretched taste. Food was food to them. "If you're hungry, then you should still eat something." Hana swore he saw her twitch. "Though this time, how about you just watch?"

Hana grinned sheepishly, his cheeks a little red. "Deal."

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

"Oh, remember the last conference?" Hana asked, laughing over his bowl of ramen.

Anna's cringed. "I try not to."

"HAHAHA! Oh man, it was so funny. My teacher was super scary! Tou-san told me that she almost made him pee his pants!"

"She was rather...eccentric."

"So she scared you, too."

"Not in the least."

"ADMIT IT!"

"She didn't scare me. She _irritated _me, but she didn't frighten me."

"I only _half_ believe you," He nonchalantly informed her, taking a big bite of his lunch.

"Oh?" His mother began, resting her head on her intertwined hands. "And why is that?"

"Well, for starters..." He paused, chewing what was in his mouth and then swallowing it, "that lady was super scary. Like, I have a feeling that _Hao_ would be afraid of her, and everyone knows that Satan himself cowers in the presence of Asakura Hao."

Anna snorted. "Whatever you say, Hana."

Hana grinned victoriously, gulping down more of his lunch. "Glad that you've finally seen the light."

"Oh, most definitely," She drawled, rolling her eyes as broth seeped through his smile. "Lovely."

Hana bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing. He could imagine what she would do to him if he accidentally decorated her dress with the partially chewed noodles in his mouth.

"What are you giggling about now?" She asked, her head resting in the cradle formed by her hands.

"Just more stuff from earlier," He admitted with a shrug. "I still can't get over how much trouble she gave you two."

"Ugh, don't remind me."

Hana grinned. "Like when she told you that she needed to talk to my mother not my older sister?"

Anna gritted her teeth, and Hana burst into obnoxious laughter.

"That was _too_ funny."

"Yes, well, thankfully, that nightmare is over. You like your teacher this year, right?"

Hana shrugged. "I guess. He's really nice and he doesn't yell at me when I talk to the ghosts who hang out in the reading corner. The other kids don't believe me. They all think I'm crazy. Deep down, I don't think he does either. He just says he does."

Anna hummed quietly to herself. "You know who would be a really good person to talk to about that?"

The young shaman piped right up. "Who?" He asked curiously.

"Yoh," She replied simply.

"Tou-san?" He asked in disbelief. "What would Tou-san know about school?"

"Yoh did, actually, attend public school for a few years."

Hana looked absolutely shocked. "_Really?_" He asked, sounding almost appalled. "But I thought Yohmei kept him under ball and chain for training."

"That was mostly after. Of course, he has been in training his whole life, but, for a very brief time before Yohmei trapped him at the Asakura estate, he was in a school with other kids his age. You should ask him about it sometime. I'm sure it would be a really enlightening experience."

"You were homeschooled your whole life, right? And so was Tamao?"

"Up until we came here. Yoh's a trendsetter. I joined his class when I came here to live with him. Tamao entered our school as soon as Yoh left."

Hana chuckled a little bit. "I thought Tamao had some super crush on Tou-san growing up. Why would she only start when he left?"

Anna gaped. "She _told_ you that? What, and did she make it sound like I stole him from her?"

He laughed. "Actually, _Ryu _told me, and no, I was told no stories in which you were the bad guy. Okay, that's a lie, but the ones where you were usually revolved around your torture."

"Training," She corrected.

He coughed to hide his laugh. "Training. Right."

Anna smirked. "Don't test me, little boy."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Hana snickered, shoveling a spoonful of noodles into his open mouth.

Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang and someone set upon knocking on the door with a vengeance.

"Hang on a second," Anna said, rising out of her chair. "I'll get it."

"Kay," Hana replied through a mouthful of ramen.

Rolling her eyes, Anna moved away from the table and headed towards the door. Whoever was on the other side was really going to town with this knocking thing.

"Hold on!" She growled.

The knocking paused for a moment, and then started up again, leading the seething itako to groan.

A moment later, she finally reached the door and wrenched it open. She sighed disdainfully when she saw a jumpy Redseb on the other side.

"Hey, Anna!" He greeted. "Haven't seen you in a while!"

"I saw you last week, Redseb," She deadpanned.

"Er...well...yeah." He averted his eyes for a moment, then came back with his enthusiasm in full swing. It was around this time that Hana finally bothered to look over and see who was at the door. When he saw who was standing there, he hastily began to remove himself from the table, not that either Anna or Redseb noticed. "Anyway, is Hana ready? Seyrarm and I are taking him out to the park to play frisbee!"

"Frisbee? That's the best you could come up with?"

Redseb snorted. "Gimme a break, Anna. You just called me a few hours ago and it's not like we had a lot of pick some super fun game out of the garage before we hopped on Golem and flew over here."

At this point, Hana finally slid over next to them, a huge grin on his face. However, the ecstatic, _"REDSEB!"_ he was about to utter mysteriously fell off his tongue when the end of Redseb's previous statement registered in his mind. Confused, he slowly turned to face his mother.

"_You_ called them?" Hana asked in shock, blinking when his mother's lips upturned into a small smile. "When?"

"While you were playing video games. I didn't want you to have to sit here all day."

"What, you don't like my company?" Hana joked, his humor masking his disbelief. He still couldn't believe she would think to call the Munzers. Heck, he couldn't believe she listened enough to know that he had planned to hang out with them today before his father said no.

Unfortunately, Redseb had no patience for the little pauses that inner monologues took place within.

"Well, what are we just gonna stand here all day or are we gonna play some frisbee?" He asked, trying to sound excited about something as utterly lame as frisbee.

"That's your super fun activity? _Frisbee?_" Hana asked, echoing his mother's previously stated thoughts.

Redseb growled. "Good god. There's just no pleasing you Asakuras."

Hana laughed, only just barely noticing as his mother nudged him from behind.

When he turned, he saw her gesture outside. "Go," She insisted. "Or Redseb is going to stand there and annoy us forever."

Redseb crossed his arms, an irritated expression covering his face. "I'm really feeling the love here, nee-san." He shook his head. "Come on, weasel. Let's get out of here before the good witch decides that the outdoors is harmful to your health."

Anna assumed a thoughtful pose. "You know, actually, you're right." She joked, snickering. "The outdoors is entirely too dangerous. You should both go retrieve Seyrarm and place something _safe_ like card games inside." She paused for a minute to roll her eyes once more and allow her jest to fade out into a calm, yet serious tone. "Dinner's at six. Make sure he's back here with time to spare."

Redseb mock saluted her and then grabbed Hana's little hand and dragged him out the door. "Come on, weasel! We've only got a few hours to set a world record for coolest frisbee trick ever!"

"Hang on! I have to get my shoes!" He said, bolting out of the room. Redseb groaned, but soon headed off after him, complaining about him not being ready.

As the two boys headed deeper into the house, Anna headed into the adjoining room where a large window gave a clear view of the outside.

A moment later, the door opened back up and slammed back closed. She knew that they must have left and so she made her way over to the huge window.

Once there, she smiled as she leaned against the its chipping frame, her eyes cast out across the front yard where Hana chased his surrogate brother towards the massive golem that sat unmoving at the edge of their yard.

And just like his father, his smile became the gleaming golden beams of breaking daylight. The shine that lit the world.

The morning sun.

* * *

Besarki: I won't lie. This is the closest I've ever come to pretty much committing suicide over a fanfic. It's not even that good and it was incredibly difficult to write! UGH! I cut out over five pages of writing over the course of the story through all of the editing I did while writing it. PAIN IN THE ASS! If you want to see some (not all) of the stuff I cut out from here, check out the pages posted to _Zephyr Beads_, which is the sister site of _The Dragon's Rosary_ (it's getting really full so I had to make a new one). Link to _TDR_ in my profile. Check the front page of _TDR_ for the link to _ZB_.

Truth be told, I forgot about this thing. It's been sitting in my drafts for well over two months just waiting to be finished. I offhandedly brought it up during a conversation with Iacta Munzer a while ago and he somehow remembered and reminded me. As a thanks, I added more to Redseb's part. Not much, but some.

There was a _very_ subtle nod to Kako no Kage, the fic I'm writing with Smart Angel in here. Did you catch it? :)

Incidentally, I'm sure you all noticed the billion and a half little jokes sewn into the story. The most obvious one should have been the quake box (parody of the N64 Rumble Pack). However, there were a ton of random jokes in this one. Captain ZoomZoom of Planet XLR8, anyone? :)

Meh. I'm not thrilled, but this is alright. I was able to slip some of my old dry wit back into there so that made me happy. I don't know what the good to bad ratio was, though. x.x

REVIEW OR THE CROWBAR MONSTER WILL EAT YOU!


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